This article is from page 14 of the 2012-07-10 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 14 JPG
THE national spokesperson for the ISPCA, Aiden Corcoran, has agreed to meet with Ennis woman Deirdre Ryan in an attempt to bring to an end a four-month-long row involving the Clare Dog Shelter in Ennis.
Ms Ryan, who is founder of the Rover Rescue organisation, claims that she is being denied access to dogs from the Ennis Shelter. While this is being disputed by staff at the shelter, Mr Corcoran confirmed last week that he is willing to travel to Clare to meet Ms Ryan and “mend bridges”.
Contact between the ISPCA National Office and Rover Rescue was made through a local intermediary who has connections with both organisations.
“Unfortunately, in the interest of the health and safety of the public enter- ing the shelter and disease control, it was found necessary to introduce new standard operating procedures at all ISPCA-run shelters,” said Mr Corcoran.
“Visitors and members of the public entering the kennels were identified as high risk and this practice was discontinued.
“All rehomeable dogs are made available to the public, including Deirdre, for rehoming and to suggest otherwise is simply unfair.”
It is as yet unclear when the proposed meeting will take place and whether the Clare Dog Warden, Frankie Coote, will have any role to play in the proposed bridge-mending.
Over the last three years, Rover Rescue has rehomed hundreds of Clare dogs in Wales and England.
However, founder Deirdre Ryan claims that she has not been able to re-home dogs as she normally would since February of this year.